... A Gap in Education SIR, The Education Authority seems to believe that the theatre in Great Britain is not worth preserving or else that it will be sufficiently preserved if allowed to shrink to the narrow dimension of mono-nationalism. Last week two school teams drawn respectively from the Girls of West Bridgford Grammar School, Nottinghamshire and the Boys of the Royal Belfast Academic ...

... Explosive Situation is Building Up! SIR,-- I have recently temporarily returned to this country after working-- most happily-- in New York as a writer for best part of a year, and I can certainly confirm your report that an explosive situation is building up in that city over the British occupancy of its theatres, and Fitzroy Davis is right to plead for action immediately to pre vent a ...

... The Kingston Battle SIR.-- Arising out of the protest meeting held in March, at which Sheila Hancock and Edward Wood ward and Hugh Jenkins were the guest speakers, and which was the culmination of seven years deter mined effort on the part of the Kingston Repertory Players, the Kingston Civic Centre Society was formed. The first action the Civic Centre Society took was to enter an official ...

... Students will Tour in This NORMAN AYRTON'S direction of A Midsummer Night't Dream at the LAMDA on Tuesday last used the apron-stage form of this adaptable ihealTe to verv good effect and. aided by the very beautiful costumes designed by Peter Rose and some admirable music and evocative sound effect* by John Dalby. Shakespeare's mixture of earthiness. fantasy and amiable regality was ...

... Czech Theatre CIR, May I say how interesting I found the article Where Opera is a Popular Art Form by G. Lenoir-Kingham? The Opera has no audience prob lem in Czechoslovakia. It is a point of honour with the Czechs to sup port culture. The question of sub sidy does not arise, as the Opera, like all other places of entertain ment is owned by the people. The country has 70 permanent theatres, ...

... Tiekets for Students O IR, In your editorial of February 21, you discuss the difficulty of young people in meet ing increased admission prices and suggest the introduction of the German scheme whereby students may purchase unsold seats at a very small price. I don't know whether this scheme was a German one or not, but certainly it has been prac tised at the Royal Court Theatre for some years ...

... The Young Actor SIR, We hear a great deal about our future plans for the ad vancement of Technology and Science, but never a word about the Arts. What chance has a young actor nowadays to learn his art in a live theatre? Other countries sub sidise their theatres, including all the communist countries and even little Finland, with pensions for actors on retirement. But what do we do? We close ...

... Credits for puppeteers Dear Sir, As a puppeteer myself, I am naturally concerned about the credits, or should I say lack of credits given to the skilled band of string, rod and glove oper ators, employed in puppetry programmes on television. While, as Charles Trentham pointed out in The Stage of October 10, there are excep tions to this rule, they are few and far between. After all, if any odd ...

... Dear Sir, The ideal rehearsal rooms should have plenty of floor space, be warm in winter, cool in summer, clean, well lighted and soundproof. There should bj adequate seating accom modation for the numbers re hearsing. Separate lavatories for men and women with hot and cold running water and soap and towels provided. A bar to open for the mid- morning and mid-afternoon breaks when tea and ...

... Trophy THE Come to Britain trophy awarded annually by the British Travel and Holidays Association for tourist enterprise has been won this year by Eastbourne Corporation's new £450.000 Congress Theatre and Conference Hall, which was opened in June. The trophy, a bronze statuette of St. Christopher, was pre sented to Alderman L. W. Pyle, of Eastbourne Corporation, by Lord Mabane, chairman of ...

... TO CRITICISE IS NOT TO BE 'AGAINST'. SIR,--Oh dear. I was afraid of this, In my letter which you printed in the last edition but one of THE STSCE I quoted a remark of Bernard Shaw's, in which he said that democracy could be compared to the sea but that if you said that the sea was sometimes dangerous no one jumped up to accuse you of being against the sea. whereas demo cracy was treated ...

... The Elephant to the National Theatre SIR. When 1 was young around the Elephant, and a razor and a chopper were baby's first toys, one of our earliest lessons was that the purlieus of street- nghts. crown and anchor boards and other crowd-raisers were the arenas where the pickpockets worked. When I got a little older 1 learned that the more efficient pickpockets had a different tech nique. ...